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Mushfiqur Rahim remained calm and composed even after being surrounded by all the buzz of his historic landmark of 100th Test, said Mominul Haque after the first day’s play of the second Test at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Wednesday.

Mushfiq was one run shy from reaching his hundred in his 100th Test as the umpires called it a day after Ireland bowled 90 overs.

He would become only the 11th cricketer in history to make a hundred in their 100th Test if Mushfiq adds one more run to his name.

However, as Ireland understandably took all the time in the world to finish the remaining overs in the last half-hour or so, Mushfiq will have to wait another night to reach the historic milestone.

He is the second batter after England’s Collin Cowdrey—who was the first cricketer in history to score a century in his 100th Test in 1968 against Australia at Edgbaston—to wait for his hundred while remaining unbeaten in the nervous nineties during his 100th Test. 

But Mominul wasn’t worried at all about Mushfiq’s embarking milestone.

‘At one point, it seemed like it would have happened today. Though they delayed [the proceedings]. But I am not worried at all, because he has the habit of getting hundreds, even double hundreds,’ said Mominul after the day’s play.

‘And I know that he doesn’t panic [after reaching nervous nineties]. That’s why I am confident. As he doesn’t panic, we are not panicking either. Inshaallah, he will be able to do it tomorrow,’ added Mominul.

The left-hander, who scored 63 and formed a 107-run partnership with Mushfiq, said that the experienced campaigner took it easy all along.

‘He was quite normal. He remains the same as he was before playing his 100th Test. There was nothing like he had to score a hundred on his 100th Test or something like that,’ said Mominul.

‘Since he came to the crease, obviously he was at zero at that point; I saw he was playing calmly and quietly. He was playing according to the situations. His whole innings was controlled; he remained calm,’ he added.

Mominul also pointed out their battle to tackle the different field settings of the visitors.

‘Their field setup was different. If you notice, when we were in, they were defensive. So as they were defensive, they allowed ones. So we tried to play accordingly,’ said Mominul. 

‘We knew that they were playing with our patience. So we had to be patient. I was saying this; Mushfiq bhai was saying the same thing too,’ said Mominul.

‘We were discussing that we’d have to play patiently for a long time. If we wanted to score a hundred, score big, then he would have to bat long. Because the pitch was slow,’ he added.